How are you focussing and composing your images? Your wide-angle subjects are a little small in the frame, your macro subjects in unappealing positions. The exposure is spot on, although once or twice the background seems to be in focus rather than the subject.

I only got a handle on this sort of thing when I began to shoot slowly and concentrate on one or two subjects (largely inspired by diving on one of Alex Mustard's workshops), taking time to look at the viewfinder and being really careful about the focus point within the image. It's always hard in temperate (i.e. cold!) water, with currents and swell, but working shallow sites with a subject in mind beforehand helps with pushing up the learning curve.

I haven't been using a dedicated wide angle or macro lens yet (still saving!), so have been making do with the 14-42mm EZ lens which came with the camera. It means that I can't do true WA or macro due to the focusing distances (i.e. if I get too close the camera won't focus on the macro end). I've been using TTL although I only got it working correctly on a couple of those shots - not the john dory one unfortunately. I would have loved to get a better picture, but they tend to be rather skittish, and were just hovering over a sandy bottom about 1" off, making any kind of interesting composition problematic at best..

I would think about manual strobe settings when you're happy with the set-up. I think that the expense of more lenses to get closer will really pay off: I believe that being too far away explains what I see as imperfections in your images.

As for getting close to fish: patience, patience, patience and as few bubbles as possible (Alex Mustard also says not to eat their relatives)...

Lol:) they are the first john dorys which i've seen *alive that is) in 14 years of diving, so any.shot is a good one for me.. im sure the lenses will help. Cant decide what to save for first -WA or macro..